A SEX offender who suffered repeated serious assaults while in prison has warned the baby-raping members of a jailed paedophile gang they will ‘do the hardest time there is’.

Yesterday a seven-strong gang were jailed for a total of 78 years yesterday after a court heard how they plotted to rape babies, toddlers and children and stream their depraved filth live on the internet.

Related articles

Robin Hollyson, 31, from Bedfordshire, was given the heaviest prison sentence – of 24 years

Christopher Knight, 35, from Manchester, who was jailed for 18 years.

Adam Toms, 33, of Somerset, was jailed for 12 years

Matthew Stansfield, 35, of Hampshire, jailed for 10 years

John Denham, 50, of Wiltshire, jailed for eight years

Matthew Lisk, 33, from Sussex, who was given a four-year term

David Harsley, 51, from Yorkshire, who was given a mere two year sentence.

They admitted or were found guilty of a range of charges including rape, conspiracy to rape, sexual assault, and administering a substance to enable sexual activity.

Ian Glover, who headed the National Crime Agency investigation, described the gang as “by far the worst paedophile group I have ever investigated.”

GETTY

The child sex gang was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court

In the worst nightmare, from the very deepest recesses of the mind, at the darkest hour of the night, few can have imagined the terrifying depravity which you men admit

Judge Julian Lambert

But today a convicted child sex offender who served seven years in prison told Express.co.uk the gang’s own nightmare was just about to begin.

The 47-year-old man, who almost lost an eye in a vicious attack behind bars, said: “They do not like sex offenders inside, and they really, really don’t like child sex offenders.

“Every minute of your life is a living hell. You are constantly watching out for where the next attack is coming from.

“There’s a lot of pent-up violence and aggression in prison and it has to come out somewhere – usually it comes out on the paedophiles. After all who is going to care if a paedophile gets beaten up or even killed? To most people it’s just one less monster in the world.

“Trust me, I don’t know if this is any comfort to anyone, but these men will do the hardest time there is. They will genuinely regret the day they were born.”

The National Crime Agency launched an investigation into the ring after Toms admitted abusing a child.

He provided details of 40 accomplices and officers began gathering evidence from fragments of deleted computer files and chat room logs.

Three victims – a baby and two four-year-old boys who live in different parts in the country – were identified.

At least 30 other children were at risk.

A relative of one victim said: “No family ever wants to find that their child has been the victim of abuse.”

The judge handed out prison sentences of up to 24 years for abuse sessions which were broadcast across the world for perverts to watch on streamed web footage.

Up to 25 men travelled hundreds of miles to take part in the attacks and swapped tips on how to drug their victims.

One pregnant woman and her boyfriend were groomed by a gang member in an attempt to secure “access” to her soon-to-be-born child.

In total, the gang were convicted of or admitted 29 offences of abuse including multiple rapes of an 11-month-old baby.